Self-acting railroad-switch



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWD. I. STEARNS, OF ELLICO'ITS MILLS, MARYLAND.

SELF-ACTING RAILROAD-SWITCH.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 5,752, dated September 5, 1848.

description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification.

K The nature of my invention consists'in so arranging one end of a self-adjusting railroad switch that the manager or engineer of a locomotive or any other railroad-car may direct the train from the main track to a branch track by moving a lever attached to the locomotive or car and in so arranging the other end of the switch that it may be operated by the flanges of the wheels when passing from the branch to the main track or otherwise.

To enable one skilled in the art to make and to use my invent-ion, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

The same letters are used at the same parts in the drawings throughout all the figures.

Figure l represents the switch completeviewed from above; Fig. 2, a section of the flat plate, 7c Z, Fig. l, with its accompanying switch-rail, levers, Sac.; Fig. 3, the same flat plate, &c., seen rfrom below; Fig. 4, the same fiat plate, &c., seen froml above, with the switch-rail, &c., in the position they take when the engine or car passes to the branch track; Fig. 5, sectiony of the flat plate, with its switch-rail, &c., in the same position as in Fig. 4f. l Y

Fig. l, mn, m n', rails of rmain track; 71, p', rails .of branch track; Ze Z, Ze Z, broad flat plates of iron fastened firmly to the sleepers, g g, ZLCLQ; 'a b, a b, movable switch-rails turning horizontally on the perpendicular pivots, (4 a; c', c, perpendicular studs, firmly fixed in the switch-rails, and passing down, through an oblong slit in ythe flat plates 2 or 3 inches below the undersurface of said plate; the lower end of the stud, c, is seen at c r, Fig. 3,wvliere a is a projection of the lower end of the stud, beneath the flat plate, over the side of the oblong slit, to hold the end, Z), Fig. 1, of the switch-rail, so that it cannot be lifted from the fiat plate. on which it rests; this projection is represented on Fig. l, by the dotted line at e; in the same figure, also, (Fig. 1,)

place.

the part of the oblong slit not filled by the perpendicular stud is represented by the dotted line at r, 7', on the other side, r', r2 Fig. 4, shows the other part of the slit r;

s, Fig. 8, is a movable lever on the under side of the fiat plate, turning horizontally on the pivot, q, and pressed by a stiff springv against the side of the lower part, c 71, of the stud, c; the same lever, s t, as also its fellow s t, is shown in Fig. l, by dotted lines; a fu, u. v, crowning levers turning vertically on the horizontal pivots, u, u', and extending below the plate to w, fw', the shape of these levers and position of the pivot may be more clearly seen at Figs. Qand 5; :a c, y', Figi, short levers turning vertically on horizontal pivots at y, y; for a clear view of them see Figs. 2 and 5; X, Fig. l, a lhorizontal shaft of wood, with crossarms, also of wood, Z cZ, e e', framed to it; the whole turning on ythe horizontal pivots z', i', this shaft with its cross-arms I call, vfor want of a better term, the tilting frame; its cross-arms extend under the fla-t plates so far that u o, m y, u c, m y', may rest upon their extremities; this extension is shown in the figure by dotted lines; the part-s of the cross-arms on which the vertical levers rest are shod with iron, or other metal; the boxes in which the pivots, z', z", turn are let into theA vperpendicularside of the sleepers; f f', y' y",

fiat bars of iron or wood, fastened to the top of the sleepers; the oblong space between these bars at the ends, and the flat plates at the sides, is covered with a trap-door (not represented in the gure) to prevent anything yfrom getting under the tilting frame and obstructing its motion.

There is a lever attached to the underside of the engine, so adjusted as to passover the crowning lever, af Av,in goingtoward the turnout, depressing it, (if elevated,) as it passes; this lever is held in its place by av spring, butmay be pulled `one side Vby the engineer, so as to pass .over u c; the moment he releases it, however, it flies back to its This lever in returning on either track, is ofcourse over the other side, but must not be allowed to press on u o; this may be prevented `by having u a live or six inches nearer the center of the track than u '0, or -by having u a) one or two inches lower than a of, or byany other method that may be found most convenient in practice.

As, owing to the shape of the engine soy wheels, the engine itself, andV with it the engine-lever, is higher or lower, according as the flange ot the wheel 1s nearer to, or

farther from the rail at m, the engine-lever might not always press u fu wholly down; to remedy this, a spring acting like a penknife-spring is attached to the tilting-trame, so that when either side of the frame is depressed, say three-fourths of the distance, it snaps down the remainder; this spring also serves to'keep the tilting-frame steady, and prevent its being tilted by the jar of the cars; or any other accidental cause. The rails p, n', taper down to a width of half an inch at 0, and the switch-rails, a b, a which have their upper surface half an inch or more above the level of the top of the track-rails, have a notch or ledge cut in them on the under side, at the swell of the curve, an inch wide and the depth of the track-rail, so as to cover the ends, 0, o, of the tapering rails, and lap over half an inch beyond them; the partof the rails thus covered is shown by dotted lines; the object of this arrangement will be explained by and by.

Such is a description of the diderent parts of the switch. Its manner of operation is as follows: The switch being in the position represented in Fig. l, that is, the switchrails beingV both closed (as they always are when at rest,) and the crowning lever, a o', up, and its fellow, u 'v down, suppose the engine going toward the turnout, the engine lever passes over u fu and depresses it, at the same time, through the operation of the tilting-frame, elevating u '0,' by the time it has passed over, the flanges of the forward wheels begin to press laterally, each on its own switch-rail, striking the rail atabout one foot from its pivot; the switch-rail, a Z),

gives way and turns on its pivot till the Y swell of the curve is flush with the side of the tapering track-rail, 0 79, (the part above i the notch just covering the end, o, of the rail, but notoverlapping it,) when its motion is arrested by the end, s, of the lever, s t, striking against the prolongation, fw, of the crowning lever u o; on the other hand, the crowning lever a o', being down, and the switch-rail, a therefore, held only by'its spring, it gives way and lturns on its pivot, the end, 8', of the lever, s t', coming out from beneath the fla-t plate, and the switchi rail opening at the swell of the curve so that engine lever will pass over l1/rfv. without dethe flange of the wheel can pass through between it and the tapering track-rail, 0 n', when it closes up, to be opened, in like man'- ner, bythe wheel neXt behind, and so on, by each successive wheel, till` all the cars have passed through; thus the whole train takes the main track simply by the action of the engine-lever, without any care of the engineer. Should another train pass along, the

train will take the maintrack. Should the engineer, however, wish to take the branch trackhe has only to. pull the engine-lever one side, a little before reaching the switch, and hold it till it has passed over u fv, when letting it go, it will fly back to its original position, ready to set the next switch right for the main-track; the engine and cars, meanwhile, will have taken the branch track, the switch-rail, a b', having been held fast, and a, Z) having opened, as shown in Fig. 4, to let the flanges of the right-hand wheels pass through. In returning on either track, the flange of the engine-wheel pressing on the flange-lever (fr y, it' on the branch track) (m y', if on the main track) sets the switch right for itself. This arrangement is for a turnout to the left; should the turnout be to the right, the ange-levers w y, wf y, must be placed at Z, Z, and the crowning ,levers u fu, u o, so adjusted that, when depressed, they shall hold fast the switch-rail, and, when elevated, shall set it free; otherwise the engine-lever, when left to itself, would set the switch for thebranch, instead of the main track.

The above is a full Vand accurate description of the switch.

That- I claim as my invention, and desire to secure byIietters Patent, is-

l. The application Aand hanging of the switch-rail, a Z), so as to turn horizontally on a pivot as. described in the specification, in combination with the horizontal lever, s t, Jeneath the flat plate, 7c Z, and the spring acting upon it, and through it, upon the switch-rail, and thus keeping the switch-rail pressed against the narrow end of the tapering rail when the cars are not passing through.

2. Also in combination with the tilting frame below, and the Hange-levers resting upon it at the one end, and the crowning levers at the other, and the arranging of these latter levers so as to arrest the long arm of the oneon the other of the horizontal levers, sV t, s t, and thus hold fast the one or the other of the switch-rails a b, a b', according as theone or the other side of the titlting frame is depressed by a movable lever attached to the locomotive or car, pressing on the one or the other of the crowning levers, u fv, u fu, in going Atoward the turnout, or by the flange of the engine or car wheel pressing on the one or other of the flange-levers, a y', m y, at the other end of the frame, in coming back on the one or the other track, as described in the specilication.

EDWARD I. STEARNS.

Titnesses STEPHEN W. Woon, J, M.- THAYER.A

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